The Sun on Her Shoulders
by Kasan Soulblade
Summary: From the night of Darkenss comes a glimmer of hope. The sun plunges from heaven, and gliding on the winds of a bound sprite it settles upon a pair of earth bound lupine shoulders.
1. Chapter 1

The Sun on Her Shoulders

Prologue:

Head filled to overflowing, he dreamed in ink and charcoal. Hands dancing upon wood, his life breath coaxed melody from the inanimate. Nightingale and woodlark warbled their whimsical notes for his fancy. His song cut through a dark night, danced amongst the stars then swept down on the unexpected with unseen wings. In his hands, at his will, song could be a weapon or a tool, this time however each note was a thread, each thread a mark embroidered upon reality. Silken tones wove upon each other to make the sound garner a thickness, repetition was like layers, and soon enough there were many, many layers.

Like covers, sound, slid upon the unconscious even as the stars winked out. A black tide rose, first from the west, than the east, until at last all horizons were covered and all stars extinguished.

The cities lights gleamed against the black, a puny defiance against the encroaching cancer that spread from the place between each star and dripped down. Like noisome venom, unnatural dark fell, trailing blackness that was invisible in the greater dark. Unseen, but not unfelt. To those few who remained awake in spite of the song the descending dark was nothing but unfelt. They scanned the skys, eyes wide, seeking but not finding a glimmer of sunlight, no matter how hard they looked. As if sensing the encroaching doom they drew closer together, regarding the perfect onyx which was heaven with a suspicious eye.

If only mere suspicion had power... if only.

It was said that faith could build walls and restore hope, if so than the laws of antonyms would dictate that doubt and skepticism were open doors and crumbling foundations. Disbelief was the unguarded front, the forsaken fortress. And all know that the unguarded, the undefended, are the most susceptible to attack.

This unnatural night could attack, it would attack, and it did so without remorse.

It was only when the screams reached his abode amongst the clouds that the music maker stilled. The nightingale hushed and disembarked, the sparrow ducked its head under a comforting wing and shivered, and the guiding breath that had been life to them both went dead.

Cocking his head to one side, the music maker considered the black waves that lapped at the earthen roots of his home with a skeptical eye. Satisfied that it would be many nights before his home was submerged he withdrew, not wanting to be caught under the star and moonless night for longer than necessary.


	2. Chapter 2

Okami

The Sun on her Shoulders

Chapter 2

_A/N: Just a quick little update_

As thunder is forever followed by lightning, so too is ill fortunes ushered in by a coward. It is a coward who in the throes of fear invites a curse. The ignorant who turn away and the innocent who merely suffer are both victims.

But in this case, this sole case, the coward was both ignorant and innocent. To the mercifully minded it is merely misfortune that such a combination exists, a tragedy that they inflict unwitting harm on those around them. To those who hold to mercy as the highest ideal such flaws are surmountable, and tragedy is to be mended and learned from.

To the coward responsibility is to be eschewed, and his two best friends are his feet and a long winding road.

Drops of darkness from between the place where stars call home. Like calls to like, and it all falls down. Like ill colored rain, and the light around their descent dims. Stars, debased of their foundation, sink into the building morass, their illumination smothered.

And still the coward runs on, hoping beyond hope that the road never runs out.

Rebuilding, redoubling, the dark rears like a wave, foamless, formless, obsidian, it glides without sound over the earth.

Its footsteps are decay, misfortune, confusion, and loss.

Its herald is wide eyed, his lips parted in a soundless scream, his face as pale as the lost moon.

From capital to heartland, through thicket to forest, at long last to the final hamlet on the very edge of the known world, the darkness surges over and it stops. For a moment, one flickering moment, it is held back. Thrown back to twist upon itself the darkness seethes even as its herald slips into the final sunlit span. Held back by compassion and sacrifice that has stained the earth a century back the wave snarls and recoils. Pacing back and froth amongst the ends of its claimed territory the darkness' sixteen gleaming eyes glitter in malice at the one spot of illumination upon the sky.

The wise might have counseled patience. Light was finite, and though nature was disturbed it was not so utterly unbalanced that the cycles had been stilled.

The sun must set after all, and with night the time worn boundary could be passed.

Never one for patience Orochi let out a screech of anger that rend the wounded earth and caused it to bleed forth demons and filth.

On the tainted winds of lies and curses the eight headed creature leapt from his place of scrutiny and left the sun drenched patch of ground to it's own devices… for now


End file.
